


Click

by hydrochen



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, i just really like mama/pathcode AUs sorry, pathcode au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 08:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7353454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrochen/pseuds/hydrochen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’re in the woods when Chanyeol’s voice begins to lose its warmth. Everything about Chanyeol is warm. But suddenly his eyes make Baekhyun shiver.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Click

**Author's Note:**

> There are not enough Pathcode AUs in this world so I had to write one for myself

He’s running.

 

He’s running through the streets and hitting walls and wildly turning corners while the lights around him darken like a final enshrouding curtain. He flinches with each click of the lights as if dodging a bullet.

 

_Click._

 

There’s ash in his mouth and it almost makes him stop. Memory returns in a flash almost as sudden as the streetlights that are dying behind him.

 

_Click._

There is Chanyeol, looking like a lost child in their bed, telling Baekhyun there are large chunks of time he doesn’t remember. Telling him that something as simple as lighting a cigarette makes him lose control. There are tears on his face as he tells Baekhyun he faintly remembers his own laughter over the sound of screams.

“Baek, I don’t know what‘s happening to me,” he says and he grips his fists so tight that his palms bleed.

 

_Click._

The lights are popping out faster now and Baekhyun tries in vain to relight them. His power feels like it’s trapped in a cage. He runs faster and tries not to remember how long he has been running. He tries not to think about who is chasing him...

 

_Click. (One Hour Earlier)_

They’re in the woods when Chanyeol’s voice begins to lose its warmth. Everything about Chanyeol is warm. But suddenly his eyes make Baekhyun shiver.

 

“What’s wrong?” Baekhyun says anxiously, but Chanyeol doesn’t respond. He just walks ahead silently. Baekhyun follows him for miles and calls out to him.

 

“Chanyeol, please, come back to me!” And finally, he does. Staggering to a stop Chanyeol turns. His eyes are back to normal and Baekhyun’s heart lifts, but then he speaks.

“I can’t, Baek, they have me now.” he says and his voice sounds like its being dragged through with knives. “I’m not me anymore, I don’t-“ his voice breaks “I don’t think I’ll ever be again. They’re coming for you next. They’re going to use me to get you but if I- maybe I can stop them if I just-”

 

The meaning of Chanyeol’s words strikes Baekhyun and he steps forward.

“Don’t.” he says. He wants to continue, he wants to make everything okay, he wants to take Chanyeol home and flood him with light until nothing dark ever touches him again.

“Don’t you dare-“ But Chanyeol’s hands cup his face gently and his breath is shaking. “Run Baekhyun…run fast.”

His lips are on Baekhyun’s and Baekhyun is startled, not because of the faint heat, but because Chanyeol’s kisses have always felt like comforting candle flames, not like dying embers.

 

The kiss is broken when the hand on Baekhyun’s cheek suddenly stings sharply. Shocked, Baekhyun stumbles away. He has never been burned by Chanyeol’s flame before. But his pain is soon forgotten when he looks up to see Chanyeol staring down at his hands. They are smoking, and tiny licks of fire are beginning to crawl up his arms.

 

“Chanyeol?” Baekhyun says cautiously but when Chanyeol looks up, his eyes are no longer his own. Baekhyun begins to back up slowly.

“It’s me,” he says. “It’s Baekhyun.” But Chanyeol’s face shows no recognition and Baekhyun realizes the danger he is in.

 

Suddenly he is knocked off his feet by an explosion of heat and light, and then the forest is burning around him. He looks back to see Chanyeol’s figure, silhouetted in flames, beginning to move towards him. Scrambling to his feet, he begins to run as the inferno reaches for him.

 

“Yeol, get a hold on yourself!” he screams, dodging a blazing rocket of fire. “Please!” But he is met only with another sheet of flame, and he wrenches himself away from his emotions and runs for his life.

 

_Click._

 

He violently jars himself away from the flashback to find he is lost in a maze of alleys. His mind races as he runs, trying to locate any means of escape. But there is nothing, and he knows he has been running for too long. He pushes the thought down, tries not to think about his slowing feet.

 

_Click._

 

The streets are deserted and there is an echo on the stone. Footsteps that aren’t his own, hauntingly familiar laughter. He wills his feet to go faster but now he can hear his name on the wind, coming closer, and he tries to run but he can’t deny, Chanyeol has always been taller, has always been stronger and faster than him.

He has never won in a race against Chanyeol, and as if to mock his certain death, the light directly above his head clicks out

 

_Click._

He can see fire out of the corner of his eye, and he can hear Chanyeol’s voice proclaiming his destruction; the same voice that once sang him to sleep at night; the same voice that once said 'I love you'.

 

Blinking back tears, he rounds the next corner and there at the end of the alley is a fence, metal teeth grinning at Baekhyun wickedly. As he uses the last of his strength to run toward it, the last few streetlights click out ahead of him, four in a row, like a heartbeat.

 

_Click Click. Click Click._

And he is left to stand in complete darkness, turning to meet the one he had always believed shared a destiny with him. He had been right; it dawns upon him, and Chanyeol’s fiery silhouette appears at the end of the street, grinning as wickedly as the fence at Baekhyun’s back. Indeed they did share a fate. Just not in the way he expected.

 

Chanyeol’s teeth, once so beautiful to Baekhyun, look cruel in the light of the flames, and as he nears, Baekhyun can’t stand to look any longer.

 

He closes his eyes. He feels breath on his face and draws upon his power one last time. He gathers all the love he has for Chanyeol and releases it in a wave he never thought himself to be capable of.

But he doesn’t open his eyes. Instead, he pictures Chanyeol’s smile, Chanyeol’s eyes.

 

He pictures the candle flame kisses.

 

As he hears the snapping of fingers, he feels the cage within him open.

 

_Click._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> There are multiple interpretations one could make of the ending. But you'll just have to decide what happened for yourself!


End file.
